Softmod the Xbox

Materials List:

• Xbox (with a BIOS version earlier than December 2003)
• USB adapter cable for the Xbox
• USB flash card drive (list of known compatible drives can be found at http://unmodded.mine.nu/docs/XboxUsbCompatibilityList) by flash drive we mean just about any USB memory device (digital cameras, memory sticks, etc)
• copy of the MechInstaller files, available at (http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/xbox-linux/MechInstaller-1.0-FATX-Images.zip?download)
• copy of the Xbox game "MechAssault" (versions below 1.6)

Preparing the USB flash card:

1. The first step is to format the flash card for the Xbox. The Xbox will do this for you. Start the Xbox with no game in it. The program that runs when no game is inserted is called the Dashboard. Once the Dashboard has started, hook up the flash card via the USB adapter. After waiting several seconds, enter the memory menu in the Dashboard. If the flash card is not detected, exit the memory menu and wait several more seconds. The reason for waiting is allowing the Xbox time to format the flash card.

2. Once the Xbox has formatted the flash card check to see how much space is available on the flash card. The Xbox will not give you a number in megabytes but rather in "blocks" the unit of memory used by the Xbox. These should be the conversions for the following sizes. 8MB ~500 16MB ~1000 32MB ~2000 64MB ~4000 128MB ~8000 256MB ~16000 It may not exactly match one of the above numbers but it will be close enough that you should be able to tell which size you have.

3. Now remove the flash card from the Xbox and connect it to a PC. Put the MechInstaller file on the memory card. There is a different file for different size flash cards. Here is a list of filenames and the size of the card they will fit on: 8MB use MechInstaller-1.0-FATX-8MB-to-32MB.img 16MB use MechInstaller-1.0-FATX-8MB-to-32MB.img 32MB use MechInstaller-1.0-FATX-8MB-to-32MB.img 64MB use MechInstaller-1.0-FATX-64MB.img 128MB use MechInstaller-1.0-FATX-128MB.img 256MB use MechInstaller-1.0-FATX-256MB.img Now the flash card is ready.

Installing mechinstaller on the Xbox:

1. Once again, plug the flash card into the Xbox running the Dashboard and go to the memory menu.

2. Select the flash card, there should be a savegame file on it. Copy this file to the Xbox hard drive.

Using mechinstaller:

1. Disconnect the flash card drive and USB adapter. Plug in an Xbox controller and put in MechAssault.

2. When MechAssault starts up select "CAMPAIGN" and then "Install Linux". 3. This should install a minimal Linux system. Next time you start up your Xbox and go to the Dashboard there should be another item in the main menu called "Linux" this will start the minimal Linux system. From there, you can install a full version of Linux using a CD from http://xbox-linux.org .